Middle & Upper School Learning Guide - Sciences

Overview

At Barrie, we believe adolescents learn best when they are known deeply, challenged thoughtfully, and invited to apply their learning to the world beyond the classroom. Our Middle & Upper School is designed around mixed-grade, mixed-skill cohorts, interdisciplinary experiences, and competency-based growth. We are seeking a Middle School Learning Guide who embodies this vision — a math and science educator who centers young adolescents while designing rigorous, experiential, and deeply human learning.

Reporting to the Head of Middle & Upper School, this role facilitates innovative life and physical sciences learning while supporting mathematics learning across levels. The candidate should be comfortable guiding heterogeneous classrooms, skills-based and experiential labs, and interdisciplinary projects that connect quantitative reasoning with real-world inquiry.

A Barrie Learning Guide, at a fundamental level, has the heart of a generalist: they teach subject-specific courses but are energized by teaching across disciplines and helping students make sense of the world as a connected whole. They design hands-on, collaborative, real-world learning experiences that cross boundaries where science connects to story, math meets making, art informs solutions, and big questions lead to meaningful ideas.

The Spirit of a Mentor: Guides understand that students can shape their own learning pathways—balancing deep experiences with wide perspectives. Guides build time to think, reflect, set goals, and grow self-awareness. Students learn their strengths, practice advocating for themselves and others, and build confidence to adapt when things don’t go as planned. Missteps are framed as learning opportunities.

The Desire to be a Mixed-Grade, Mixed-Level, Interdisciplinary Facilitator: Guides are at home in mixed-grade cohorts, structuring learning environments where collaboration builds smart thinking and strong community, empathy and achievement rise together, and students learn to support others while growing themselves.

In short, Barrie’s ideal Learning Guide is someone who:

• Values relationships and makes learning inviting, human, and connected.
• Believes learning growth happens through meaningful challenge and real-world action.
• Understands that the goal is learning that leads to purpose, agency, and self-knowledge.
• Recognizes that students need to learn how to do life, not just how to do school.

Position Requirements

• A bachelor’s degree in an educational or disciplinary field (Master's or higher preferred) with pedagogical mentoring required.
• At least 2–3 years of middle school teaching experience; US teaching experience for Upper School.
• Strong content knowledge in your discipline and flexibility to support learning in other disciplines.
• Demonstrated ability to design and facilitate human-centered interdisciplinary and experiential learning experiences.
• Strong classroom management and scaffolding skills.
• Comfort teaching in mixed-grade, mixed-readiness environments.
• Commitment to competency-based growth and authentic assessment.
• Skill in building relational trust with adolescents and families.
• Collaborative mindset and willingness to engage in iterative program design.
• Flexibility and reflective practices.
• Alignment with Barrie’s mission to cultivate belonging, intellectual courage, and real-world learning.
• A belief in the power of restorative practices.
• Strong interpersonal, relationship-building, and organizational skills.
• Experience with leading Outdoor Education programming is a plus.

Core Responsibilities & Competencies

• Serve as advisor to a small cohort of students, facilitating reflection, goal-setting, belonging, and strong family partnership.
• Teach a full load of mixed-grade, mixed-skill life and physical science courses.
• Support skills-based, experiential math learning.
• Design and facilitate electives and interdisciplinary offerings as appropriate.
• Design rigorous, inquiry-driven learning experiences that may extend beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries.
• Differentiate instruction within heterogeneous classrooms using flexible grouping, workshops, and formative assessment.
• Assess student mastery through…